10
Historical FictionHild by Nicola Griffith and wondering about author
Just finished Hild by Nicola Griffith and it's sticking in my teeth.
I did enjoy it but won't be reading the sequel. SPOILERS ahead.
Great depictions of life in the Middle Ages (600s AD) with an absolutely impressive knowledge of Anglo-Saxon daily work. It's made me curious to learn more about this time. Completely enjoyable passages about nature, the importance of closely watching the seasons to prepare for life in that age and author uses this as a metaphor for our main character Hild needing to watch the changing political landscape around her.
Relevant to discussion on Ovarit, the author slides in the smoothest realization of the character's sexuality. She notices others around her realizing themselves and she doesn't seem to have any desires herself but she has dreams, then there it is, she is lesbian.... except then the author unnecessarily just shits all over it and Hild fucks and marries her brother?? I'm sorry, what?
Sooo... Problems I had with this novel: it needed like 75% less characters. I know the author is a researcher of this time period but it was impossible to follow. Same with word spellings, she sticks to traditional/cultural spelling of a ton of words which made it impossible to define and I had to search quite hard on google. The explanation of childbirth and the women's knowledge of it is not actually as detailed or believable as the passages about war and gore. I find this passable only because the main characters life is more focused on war/politics than marriage/children.
Historically, for once an author weaves a believable reason that a woman might have had power and fighting ability. Hild wins the loyalty of warrior men and fights with them without becoming a trope of a badass chick.
Religiously and historically, Hild was a real woman who became a nun and a saint. I picked up on subtle hints to the very slow conversion to Christianity, but the brother fucking... omg it just ruined it for me because it was so unnecessary. There were plenty of other great partner lineups and would have been interesting to see a fictional tale of lesbianism just seen as part of life (oh Hild sleeps with women nbd, but we also have to marry her off to a prince) and the character accepting her political marriage as part of her life would have been better than incest. Or, sticking to a lesbian identity could have fit with her sainthood (somehow avoiding marriage and maintaining a "virgin" status to keep the "Seer" abilities and then weave that into becoming a nun, living with only women). But somewhere this character needs to have a real conversion as well, to end up being venerated as a saint. Here I find it problematic for the author to claim we "don't know anything about Hild" when we do surely have records through the church, explaining the reasons for her sainthood and subsequent miracles.
Reading it made me want to know more about the author Nicola Griffith and I went on a mad hunt to find out if she's team TERF or team Queer. I can't tell but I hope for team TERF bc she's a lifelong defender of lesbian rights and writes a lot of lesbian literature. I saw no references to TQ on her instagram, other than calling herself queer. If anyone knows differently I'd be interested to know, as well as what you thought of the book?
I haven't read the book, but purely based on the incest thing, I fear the chances of the author being a feminist of any kind are slim.
Who refuses to include a religious conversion on the basis of "we don't know", but does include incest (which I assume is NOT a historical fact ...) for no effing reason whatsoever? I mean ... that's very strange.
I've read it and I disagree based on how the incest is portrayed - the 2 mothers (it was Hild and her half brother who fall in love) kept the origin of the brother's father secret from everyone to protect the boy from getting killed.
Ah, ok, then it is a classic "unknowing incest" tragedy? Ok, that's different. Still strange though, to include such a thing but then balk at including religion because "we don't know" - everything else being equal, I think most people would be less offended at someone getting their religious conversion wrong than at someone insinuating that they committed incest.
I felt that there was a lot of internal contemplation by Hild regarding this new religion and, as I haven't read the sequel, I'm sure there will be more on her development there.
I started Hild but didn’t get very far (because of life, not the book, and it was a library book so I had to give it back), but I read The Blue Place and found it very engaging, if not quite believable in its all-over-the-placeness. I like her writing a lot and will definitely read more if given the chance.
I, too, tried to figure out if she’s gender critical, and came up with nothing definite either way.
I read the book and really loved her attention to historical detail and the rich imagining of what it must have been like to straddle pre-Christian Celtic religions and the new Christianity and its politics...her mother is a great example of an ambitious woman who takes on Christianity to gain power, not because she's pious. My take on the incest thing was that it wasn't known or obvious to Hild and her half-brother as he was raised as if he wasn't the son of that earl. My understanding of Griffith is she's just a bog-standard lesbian living with her wife.